Points2Shop Has Shipped My Prize...

I received this email from Points2Shop today:

"Your order is approved and ordered at Amazon.com. As soon as we receive the tracking number we will update the status of your order. You will receive notification of this by email."

This means I should get my CD soon. I haven't received a tracking number yet.

Unfortunately, many of the offers and surveys I've taken on Points2shop recently seem to be stuck in "approval limbo". I hope that it doesn't turn out to be the same situation as GamingLagoon all over again. From the announcements, though, it looks as if they are doing a major site overhaul. Hopefully, the 'approval limbo' is linked to this, and things will get better once they're done updating the website.

Anyway, Points2Shop is also linked to something called Cashle. Instead of Amazon points, you earn cash. Cash can be converted to Amazon points on Points2shop, but Amazon points cannot be converted to cash. I mainly ignored Cashle since many of the offers only give you a few cents, but some of the Daily Surveys look like they have a decent payout, so I may switch over to Cashle for a little while and see what my experience with that is.

As for Reviewstream, I got burnt out on review writing and let it rest for a little while. Part of the problem is that they only want to pay the full rate for certain kinds of reviews. I'm not sure about some categories, but I know that makeup and electronics reviews are in demand. And I was sort of sick of reviewing makeup and shampoo. Right now, my opinion is to only review things such as food if you're willing to accept the bulk rate. Nonetheless, I'll be writing a few more reviews over the next few days while picking my brain for more ideas for Associated Content articles.

Neobux Paid Me

I finally reached the $2.00 minimum payout on Neobux and cashed out. They paid me almost instantly. By the time I opened a new tab and logged into Paypal, my payment was already there:



It's $1.98 because Neobux apparently takes fees out when they pay you. They inform you of this when you go to cash out, though.

I would like to stress that this was done WITHOUT a premium account, without renting referrals, and with no actual referrals (nobody clicked my referral link, nobody loves me... *sniff*).

You'll also see a payment from Ciao - my final payment, actually. Took them about a month, in comparison.

I also recently requested a prize from Points2Shop. It was a pretty cheap price - a CD from a band I happen to like, used, for about 3 bucks plus maybe another dollar or two for shipping. It didn't come up in the Points2Shop searches, I had to manually enter the product ID, but I wasn't told it had to be specially requested or anything, so hopefully the request will go through normally. If so, it should arrive in a few days.

I've been plinking away at Swagbucks, as usual. Swagbucks and Neobux are favorites of mine, by now. I like ReviewStream but I've been having difficulty thinking up new reviews (that they'll accept at full price, anyway). Same with Associated Content. Those two definitely take more time and energy, although they pay a lot better.

Regarding Surveyspot, I have not yet qualified for a single paying survey. Regarding Opinion Outpost, many of the surveys they offer seem to be surveys I can also take through Dollar Surveys. I'd rather get the 1 buck (transferred to my Paypal within a week) than "points" I have to save up, so it's not hard to guess why I tend to go with Dollar Surveys. That, and they don't ask for tons and tons of personal information about myself.

Paid By Reviewstream - Reviewstream is Legit

Two hours after sending Reviewstream an email requesting payment, I received my payment of $90.80. Wow, that was fast!




So I can now say that they are definitely legit. I can also say that I'll be able to pay my student loan bill next month. Thank you, ReviewStream, and bless your little hearts.

I'd like to mention that I did this without a legion of referrals. In fact, I have no referrals at all. Nobody has been up-voting my reviews (I don't think I've gotten a single Helpful vote, although I work awfully hard on them). That's right, I wrote 47 reviews (I got paid the bulk rate for 2 of them before wising up). It wasn't easy. They tend to get accepted faster as you write more. I think out of all of the reviews I have written, perhaps 2 have gotten rejected for the full rate, and that was before I learned how to write them in a way that I knew would get them accepted for the full rate. Writing a good review really doesn't take that long once you have practice and you're writing to a template. You can see the reviews I've written by checking my review blog, ShinyReview.